That is a great point! I like our king width, but the length could easily lose a few inches.

Chain saws to the ready!

Yes! And even for queen size, how hard would it be for the sheet makers to sew the seam with a different color on the ends?

DD recommended a brand of sheets from Walmart that her MIL had recommended. The fitted sheet bottoms are square with very deep elastic sides to tuck under. You can put any corner of the sheet on any corner of the mattress and it will fit nicely. These king sheets fit either Eastern or California King mattresses too.

It's not just about the sheets -- it's the inability to even out the wear.

I'll add a gripe: Why are non-flip mattresses so THICK? It's not as though there is really 15 - 18 inches of material/padding inside that 'box'.

Some manufacturers sew the size and care tag on the corner seam to help identify which way the sheet goes on. The corner with the tag goes on the top left or the bottom right.

But you're right - square could be more useful.

I wish Queen mattresses would have handles as the King do. G/F and I turned my mattress last weekend and turning, not flipping was an effort that would have been easier with handles.

When we bought our Queen set I deliberately got the low-profile foundation so the bed wouldn't be so high, All mattresses are so thick these days.

I'm indifferent about the shape but my gripe is, why aren't mattresses longer? A not-inconsequential portion of the population is >6 feet tall. We have both a longer Cal King and a regular King and my feet hang over both. Another 6 inches of length would fix the problem.

I've gotten accustomed to it and haven't considered an extra long custom bed but I'm sure plenty of people have them.

We have a king and it is almost square. We do a quarter turn every month or so. You can tell if it's the "proper" position if you study it but I'm not fussy enough to care if it's slightly wider than tall for the month.

We do have to figure out which corners the sheets go in though as they aren't as flexible as our bedframe!

How tall are you, Elmer? California Kings are 84 inches (7 ft) so I can see how it would be close for those over 6 ft but I'm surprised your feet hang over. I guess it also depends how far from the headboard your head is. No one wants to sleep right against it.

Rusty I have a decorative stitch over the normal stitching on my queen size sheet...

and Elmer, how about finding a mattress maker?

We have a company here in town, that will make a mattress to your dimensions! :)

Mine is custom.

But the turning and flipping is a B*TCH no matter what. I did mine yesterday, as yesterday was super warm (in the 70's) and windy, perfect for laundry (no dryer in my house) and I have nice awesome smelling sheets. :)

Also, my daughter is here, and I had help with the flip and turn.

Moni

We recently bought a new mattress and were told that they are not making 2 sided mattresses anymore due to their pattern of burning in a fire.

This is the third mattress we bought in 5 years and we finally got a great one. I told the salesperson that we did not want a pillow top or memory foam.

I dislike contour sheets that are elasticized all the way around. They just look like a big round frisbee and the corners are hard to find. It is a struggle to find that label.

chi, I'm a bit over 6 feet. I've never looked at it with a tape measure but if you put down the pillow (what, maybe 18 inches in the short direction?) that leaves 84-18= 66 inches to the end of the Cal King. I sleep with my head just barely on the pillow so there it is. With the standard King, the end of the bed is at about my ankles or a bit higher. We need to leave enough slack in the top sheet and blankets at the bottom of the bed so that my feet aren't squished.

I'm used to it. There are plenty of people around who are taller than I am and I wonder how many have extra long beds. A lifelong buddy of mine is 6 inches taller than I am and I know he has a custom bed.

Elizabeth, what mattress did you finally get?

The last couple of fitted sheets I purchased had labels sewn in on the ends of the sheets that say "top/bottom" and "sides". I got them at Target and it makes it so much easier to know which end of the sheets are which.

We are due for a new mattress and I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to find a regular standard mattress that doesn't have memory foam or a pillow top. I'm dreading it as the last time we bought a mattress, the guy in the mattress store practically held us hostage until we bought something. It was worse than buying a new car!

After decades of rotating sheets & blankets to find the correct fit, I finally did as suggested above and marked the bottom side of each sheet and blanket. Life is better now.

Dawn, check out Berkeley Ergonomics. NO high pressure sales and they can put together a mattress and foundation specifically for your body and sleep positions. Yes, more expensive than the bed shop along side the road, but well worth it.

Thanks for the tip, Michael. Good to know and I will definitely check them out.

If there is any spare material on the inside corners of a bottom fitted sheet, I just write "top" and "bottom" with a permanent marker. Saves me a lot of time and effort.

I've all ways written Side on each of the sides of my sheets. Now I buy sheets from Sam's Club and you can tell which is the top or bottom easily.

For the tall you might consider what I have done. Either forget the headboard or anchor it to the wall, pull your frame and mattress out from the wall and find yourself some nice storage bins that stack to within a few inches of the top of you mattress and use them for seasonal or deep storage. Fill in the remaining space with a couple of fairly solid pillows and put your personal pillows on top of that. You get as many extra inches as the width of the bins and more foot space instead of useless wasted head of the bed space. To make it pretty just fold a sheet to spread over the bins and hang down to cover the sides.

The contractor who worked on our home is 6'7" He customized his headboard by welding L shaped brackets to the head of his bed frame and then attaching his headboard to them. This gives him an 8" gap between the mattress and the headboard. He cut a foam cushion to fit in the gap which effectively extends the length of the mattress by 8" He places his pillows on the foam. When the bed is made you don't see the foam and he can still use regular king sheets.

Suzieque: We bought a in house brand tight top mattress with 680 individually pocketed coils with gel cooling in the top. It is very firm and has good side support. You cannot feel the other person move or get in or out of bed. It does not get hot during the night like memory foam and you do not sink into it. You sleep on top of this mattress, not in it.

Morning backaches are gone and I sleep very soundly.

I gave up with trial and error and put a « T » on the top. For solids it’s either top or bottom.

I bought Heartland brand sheets from Bed Bath and Beyond and I was pleasantly surprised to find they sew a tag into all for sides that says "top or bottom" and "side". Sure makes it easier to make the bed!!

We really have no need for storage areas, bins, or other DIY approaches. My wife likes to prop her pillow against the headboard so any desert area added between the mattress and the wall wouldn't work for her. I do appreciate hearing suggestions.

I've been 6 ft plus since about age 15 and so I'm accustomed to beds being too short. If it were an issue I wanted to remedy, I'd simply buy an extra long mattress- that seems like the easiest solution. Having my feet go off the bottom end works EXCEPT in beds with a footboard. Then, I need to either sleep on my side with bent knees or slightly diagonally and stick my feet out over the side of the bed. These approaches work okay too.